I’m sure all you proud Scots out there will be aware that St. Andrews day is coming up. You may simply have a plate of haggis, neeps and tatties for your dinner in honour of this day, or you may have forgotten altogether about the occasion! If you like haggis today’s recipes is perfect for you, you’ll love my modern twist on the traditional Scottish dish of haggis.

At The Cook School I have been working on lots of traditional Scottish dishes and trying to give them a modern twist. The reason for this is that we had the commonwealth games in Glasgow this

My dish today is the classic Scottish dish of stovies, a famous dish with many different recipes depending on who you ask. It’s a dish that was devised by housewives for using up leftovers, often made with the leftover roast from the weekend, or sausages either link or square, any kind of meat really. There really is no right or wrong when it comes to stovies, basically meat cooked down slowly with vegetables and stock until the vegetables almost break down and the starch from the potatoes thickens the stock, making the dish almost stew like.

Research has shown that more and more people are eating vegetarian food. That’s not to say that there’s a massive increase in people becoming vegetarian, but the research shows that more and more people are eating at least one vegetarian meal per week. Some of this can be put down to the highly successful ‘meat free Mondays’ campaign, backed by lots of high profile celebrities, including the McCartney family and jamie Oliver, where you’re encouraged to leave out meat and have a vegetarian meal at least once a week, invariably making your diet healthier. So today’s recipe gives you the perfect

Following on from last weeks super salad, here’s another one to enjoy on these hot summer days and warm summer nights. Filling enough to enjoy as a main meal but not too hearty and filling for a heat suppressed appetite. My recipe today is a twist on a Classic Caesar salad. There absolutely nothing wrong with Caesar salad, in fact a well made one, is one of my favourite things to eat, especially on a warm summers night. Sweet, crispy lettuce with salty Parmesan and garlic infused crunchy croutons, all bound together in

This has been one of the quickest, most fun packed, busiest summers I can ever remember. I can actually hardly believe that my kids are back at school, it seems like yesterday that they came out the gates, high as a kite, looking forward to their holidays, lasting the best part of 7 weeks. The fact that there has been so much going on, and of course the weather which on the whole has been great, has made the summer fly by.

It might have been easier just to call today’s recipe a lamb biryiani as I’m going to cook it in a similar style to that of a biryiani, but I don’t want the purists and perfectionists on my case for it not being exactly the same, so I’ll stick with my slightly more long winded title, but you get the idea! Most of my dishes that I cover are either new creations, or often my take on a classic dish, so the ingredients or method will often vary slightly as I experiment with them, or try and make them

Over the next 3 weeks I’m going to take you on a mini curry tour, featuring 3 different curries from around the globe, some of them you may have tried, some might be new to you. Each recipe uniquely different and using a host of different ingredients . Ingredients you may have used before, spices you may have in your cupboard, or there might be a whole raft of things you need to go out and purchase. Whatever the case,they are definitely all worth going to the effort of shopping for and making at home.

It’s easy just to think that curries just come from India and Thailand, but there are so many other countries out there with their own signature, or lots of different, curries. They will all have their own unique ingredients, methods and techniques that make them original to that country, but there are always lots of the same ingredients that appear in a curry no matter where it’s from. Standards would normally be onion in some form whether it be shallot, or even spring onion, and garlic, ginger and chillies. Most curries wherever you are will include these ingredients to help form

Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling salted water according to the packet instructions.
Cook the vegetables for 2 minutes in plenty of rapidly boilng salted water.
Meanwhile gently fry garlic in the olive oil for 2 minutes then add the butter, wine and mascarpone and melt down, season with some salt and

Roast the sweet potato in the olive oil and salt and pepper at 180’c in the oven until tender.
Blanche the green beans and mange toute in boiling salted water for 2 minutes.
Place the couscous in a bowl with the boiling stock, cover with cling film and leave for 10 minutes.
Mix all of the above with the chickpeas, mint and coriander. Then make the dressing below and mix well